Paging NMStevens: writing outside Hollywood

Question

(These questions are addressed to Neal, but I would like to hear comments from writers in a similar situation)
Neal, you're one of the few who has successfully achieved a successful screenwriting career without moving to Hollywood. Care to give us some points on how to do it?
Some specific questions: did you move to Hollywood or New York for a while in order to make your first sale?
How do you manage your meetings?
Any advice on making the most amount of contacts in the shortest span of time?
Thanks, as always, for your wisdom.
.odnamrA

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1](These questions are addressed to Neal, but I would like to hear comments from writers in a similar situation) Neal, ... achieved a successful screenwriting career without moving to Hollywood. Care to give us some points on how to do it?[/nq]
Well, there are phones, there's e-mail, and there are airplanes. I also have an agent on the west coast. Also, as a rule, Judy and I tend to travel out to L.A. strictly to take meetings, at least once a year, apart from any other times that I go out there for business, during which my agent also schedules any other meetings that he can with my spare time.
[nq:1]Some specific questions: did you move to Hollywood or New York for a while in order to make your first sale?[/nq]
Well, after undergrad, I moved to NY to go to NYU grad film school and I stayed, so I've been in NY now for almost thirty years. My first professional TV sales were to a NY-based company Laurel Entertainment, and I worked for them for six years (although they're gone now).
My first feature option was to Ocean Pictures (Harold Ramis' company), by way of Twentieth Century Fox, which was set up by way of my wife, who had been managing my at the time.
That deal was set up and concluded without my ever having met any of the principals or having gone out to L.A.
[nq:1]How do you manage your meetings?[/nq]
They're generally done as phone conferences. If it's a "done deal" and somebody wants to fly me out, they sometimes will do that. Otherwise, I will do face-to-face meetings with people during the times when I'm out to L.A. on my yearly trips or on other business.
[nq:1]Any advice on making the most amount of contacts in the shortest span of time?[/nq]
Don't treat people as "contacts" you wouldn't like it, and they don't. This is a business based on relationships. People like to help their friends they have to help people who might be useful to them professionally much better to be both.
If they like your work, that's great. If they like your work and they also like working with you that's even better.
This is advice that I offer, not that I necessarily follow.

NMS

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1](These questions are addressed to Neal, but I would like to hear comments from writers in a similar situation)[/nq]
I'm not a professional yet, but I know three pros in NYC. Here's how they did it:
- Tom moved to L.A. when he was young, wrote a kick-*** screenplay, got financing and it was a hit. He lived there for 10 years or so and then was able to move back to NY. Now he works things in the way that Neal describes in his reply.
- **** got a job as a P.A. in NY for Scott Rudin. Rudin liked him. **** wrote a kick-*** script that Rudin produced. It was moderately successful. **** now works things in the way that Neal describes in his reply.
- Harriet got her start in NY in TV, and did well. She'd built up her career enough that when she started writing (good) screenplays she was able to sell them. Not being in L.A. was really never an issue.

I realize these answers may all be irrelevant to someone not living in, say, NY or Chicago. Sorry about that.
As for your questions about building up as many acquaintances as possible in as short a time as possible, I don't really have a comment on the time aspect, but as for networking there are various ways to do it.
My co-writer went to the Actors Studio program at the New School (now it's affiliated with Pace) and got his MFA there. He met a lot of people with whom he's kept in touch, and as those folks (including him) make small strides forward they share connections and information.

Our script won a minor award at a local festival and we actually wound up making some pretty good contacts there, one of whom optioned our script and is now trying to get it made. She (our producer) in turn has contacts of her own, who are now, at least to some extent, our contacts.
Worthwhile contacts and developments can also come from very unexpected places. One of our current strong leads came about because a fellow I used to work with (at an investment bank nothing to do with entertainment) is the cousin of the wife of someone we really want involved with our project. I never knew this and it was only very much by accident that I even found out he hasn't talked to her in about
15 years but is now getting in touch with her for my sake. While onemight at first credit this only to luck, it's also the case that I am able to him for this favor because years ago, for innocent reasons, I became and stayed friends with him and he respects me.

As Neal said, people skills are enormously relevant, in both obvious/linear ways and in subtle/impossible-to-predict ways.

-mar lup

Paging NMStevens: writing outside Hollywood

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